Experiences and Adventures The Sin Ming Court Gang Of Three Have di Jakarta.

Either the first day of school was not as earth-shatteringly exciting as mummy had hoped or this big boy was too cool to be all bubbly and chatty about all that went on but he said very little when mummy tried to make conversation.

M: How was school?

BB:It’s okay.

M: So what did you do in class?

BB: We went to the library.

M: Oh ok. (pause) So did you enjoy yourself?

BB: It’s okay.

And so mummy figured she’d let the big boy volunteer whatever information he wants to share whenever he wants to share it because like her son who totally knocked out on the ride back home on the macet-ed* roads, she was really tired too. Thank goodness she was not the one behind the wheels!

WEEPEE! Goes both mother and son before setting off for BIS in Bintaro, about 35 minutes away from APG via the toll road when the traffic is kind.

Mateen and the class notice board.

Mummy and Mateen (who grudgingly agreed to the photo after complaining his mummy takes one too many of them :/)

Checking out Star Wars at the library.

That was yesterday.

Today, #2 is feeling a little out of place, disoriented and bored at the Buskers Cafe while waiting for school to end at 2.40 pm. One more hour to go! Ok it hasn’t been all that bad actually. While #3 is getting rid of his cerebral cobwebs in class, #2 had free refreshments at an event she chanced upon to welcome new parents (except everyone there seemed to be an old hand in school), signed up for the Indonesian Heritage Society welcome meeting, found out about the English language museum tours at the National Museum (have been thinking about going for a while), submitted the form for the driver’s pass, ordered name labels, signed #3 up for a swimming assessment and met new people. Takes a bit of effort but it beats drinking aqua alone……………………………………………………….
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Time check: 25 minutes.

Will sign off for now, trot to the year 5 block and return with tales of the first day of school shortly.

Just before heading back to Jakarta, #3’s dear uncle Jo gave him a super cool Pop-up book.

Check out this cool robot!

There are also very clear templates and step-by-step instructions on how to build a pop-up dragon, castle and Frankenstein’s lab! Will upload photos of the finished work after #3 conquers his fear of producing something imperfect and start creating.

#2 was starting to get restless with a lot of time on hand. Then she got handed parts of her mother-in-law’s to be spruced up. Woopie! 😀 Darn proud of her handiwork is she! (and very humble too might I add! ;p) Read all about it here.

#3 also got very bored until he made new friends at the public playground (a total luxury for us now) near his grandmother’s. Over buka puasa, he told us a rather amusing story about his new found friends. The conversation went something like this (ok it’s obvious with my memory of an ant I’m paraphrasing ALOT here):

#2: So did you have fun just now? Feeling good?
#3: Yah very fun! There were many people playing.
#2: That’s great!
(fast-forwarding the boring bits)
#3: I just asked the boys whether I can play and they say can. But they said ‘no’ to two girls. Because they are Chinese lah.
#2: Huhaaahh…. (together with aunt)
Aunt: Aiyoh why like that? (together with #2)
#2: So what did you say to them? Did you ask them to let the girls play too?
#3: Yah I did but they say dunwan lah. Because they are Chinese.
#2: But how did they know you are Malay?
#3: I spoke in Malay mah.
#2: You should tell them you’re half-Malay and half-Chinese and it’s okay for everyone to play together!
#3: Yah I did! I told them about racial harmony and all…
#2: (mumbled something about the success of Singapore’s NE programme.)
#3: and then they said but Racial Harmony Day over already!

Yup Singapore’s brand of NE programme is alive and well all right! :}

Like this archaic drawing, racial harmony is probably still an imagined ideal for many.
Living, playing and learning together harmoniously regardless of race, religion and gender, according to the candid boys, takes place only on that one precious day.

Still, the Gang of three is hopeful for this pair of Chinese daughter-in-law/sister-in-law/aunt and half Chinese grandson/nephew/cousin, despite missing their home-away-from-home and routine di Jakarta, are very very happy to be back in the Lands of Wood this holy month of Ramadhan 🙂

We love having people over! It makes this little home away from home feels more like one 🙂

Here are some of the lovely folks we have hosted: Yati, Ahmad and the kids over the CNY break; Talip, Irda and the girls in the beginning of June; The Woodlands Gang one week later (represented here by Naufal with his expressive pre-trip drawing). Unfortunately we have not been very diligent in capturing photographic memories of all our guests 😦

Mateen, Khadijah and Tayibah jamming it up di Bandung while mom and dad shop the town red! 😉

One quick shot before the Blue Bird arrives.

Mateen with Cik Ahmad and Abang Nadir. Where’s Abang Dzafir?

Couzie Yati with Najya before boarding the plane.

Mister Naufal of the Woodlands Gang.

Well, with the blog we will endeavour to do better!

Have a fabulous day all and we look forward to seeing you here! 🙂

Cheerios from the JaGaTiga 😀

P.S. This is actually the second piece I wrote for the blog. Wanted to experiment with the “Pages” feature but think it’s more accessible here.